February 14, 2006

Innocence Project at Cooley Gets $15,000 Grant

second from right: Innocence Project Director Professor Norm Fell accepts grant

The Innocence Project at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School has been awarded a $15,000 grant by the Michigan State Bar Foundation. The project was presented with the check on Feb. 14.

The foundation awards grants annually to non-profit projects that educate the public about the legal system and help improve the administration of justice.
Cooley officials were honored by the award.

Professor Norman Fell, chairman of the Clinical Department and director of the Innocence Project at Cooley, accepted the check on behalf of the project and noted, “The Cooley Law School Innocence Project is dedicated to identifying, locating and securing the release of those persons who are imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. It is credit to our profession that the Michigan State Bar Foundation, an organization of lawyers, has seen fit to help us pursue our mission with this generous grant.”

Cooley Law School established the Cooley Innocence Project in 2001. "The project's dual mission is to remedy wrongful convictions, as well as to provide its students with an excellent learning experience," said Professor Kathy Swedlow.

"The Innocence Project is an opportunity for law students to engage in an important service to the judicial system while learning the intricacies of handling a criminal case," she continued.

The project is administered and taught by Professors Norman Fell, Kathy Swedlow, and Marla Mitchell-Cichon, with the assistance of Staff Attorney Donna McKneelen.
Cooley's Innocence Project is an independent law school clinic that works in conjunction with other projects around the country. Cooley's project undertakes cases on behalf of Michigan prisoners pursuant to the State’s DNA statute. To date, the project has received over 3,000 applications for assistance.

In the 2004, the project at Cooley made news when the conviction of a Macomb County- man, Ken Wyniemko, was exonerated after a review of the DNA evidence proved Wyniemko innocent. He was released after having spent nine years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Wyniemko will serve on a panel discussion about the Cooley Innocence Project, proposed legislation and his own experience Tuesday, March 21 following the presentation of a Sundance Film Festival award-winning film, “After Innocence.”

The film follows the lives of seven men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA proved their innocence. The film will be shown 6-7:30 p.m. in Room 401 of the Cooley Center, 300 S. Capitol, Lansing. The public is invited; donations to Cooley’s Innocence Project are welcomed.

For more information about the Innocence Project, please call (517) 334-5764.
Notification: The Michigan State Bar Foundation's funding for this project (or publication) does not constitute an endorsement of any content or opinion expressed in it.